


Hallucination

by escapismandsharpobjects



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Episode: s01e05 The Trip, Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, Malcolm Bright Whump, Whump, i still don't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-19 10:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22442620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects
Summary: Originally written for the Whumptober 2019 prompt day 22: hallucinationAn AU to s01e05 where Malcolm has to stay at the precinct while he's high.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright, Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell
Comments: 28
Kudos: 166





	Hallucination

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I wrote this fic back in October and I'm currently in the process of transferring a few of my better works from tumblr over to here, so here's the first of the batch! It may not be the best but I hope you enjoy!

He was higher than a kite. He knew this, and he was enjoying it. It felt _great!_ Where were his inhibitions? He had no idea, but they certainly weren’t here! He could say anything, _do_ anything…

Except go home, apparently.

“Grab a blanket from…somewhere,” Gil instructed Dani. “I’ll let him sleep it off in my office.”

“Aren’t you going to go home?” Dani asked, already moving out of the room to find a blanket. 

“Not for a little while. When I do, I’ll take Malcolm back to his place.”

Dani nodded and walked off down the hallway.

“I don’t want to sleep,” Malcolm said from beside Gil. “I wanna dance, or have fun…” he glanced behind him at the sound of rattling chains, but there was nothing there.

“Tough luck. You need to sleep. And drink plenty of water.”

Malcolm made a face. “Why?” He asked. “Why do we have to do _boring_ stuff?”

“You’ll thank me in the morning,” Gil told him, taking an old brown blanket from Dani and letting her know she could go home.

“See you tomorrow, yeah, Bright?” she said. 

“Thanks for the blanket,” he replied. “It’s a lovely shade of brown.”

She rolled her eyes. “What’re friends for?”

“We’re…friends?”

“Yes…no…I mean…maybe? Are we?”

Gil sat down at his desk and paid no attention to their conversation.

“Are we?” Malcolm repeated. “It’s weird, isn’t it. I don’t really have much experience with friends.”

“Neither do I,” Dani said with a small smile. “See you in the morning, friend.”

“I’ll remember this forever!” Malcolm called after her as she exited the room.

“I doubt you’ll even remember it in the morning,” Dani said, shutting the door behind her.

Malcolm sat back on the couch and grinned. “Did you hear that?” he asked Gil. “We’re friends!”

Gil nodded, focusing on something on his computer. 

“It’s so great! I have a friend, and she’s so cool and mysterious, and…” he trailed off at the sound of a muffled scream, looking about the room for its source, but seeing nothing.

“Get some sleep, okay?” Gil asked. “I’m gonna be doing some work for a little bit. I’ll wake you in a while and take you home.”

“Yeah,” Malcolm said, not really paying attention anymore. Something flashed before his eyes, just an image-a face. Dr. Whitly. His father. He shot to his feet. 

“Malcolm? You alright, kid?”

Malcolm didn’t hear him. His father was speaking to him, but it wasn’t his father anymore, it was _him!_ He stumbled backwards onto the couch. 

“No! No!” he shouted. “No! I’m not him!” 

The other Malcolm didn’t pay any attention to that. “You might not _be_ him, but you _are_ his son. His blood. We are the same.” He grinned, and his mouth was full of blood, and a woman screamed, and a hand reached out to grab him, and he screamed. 

Gil sprung up from his desk and hurried around to the couch. “Malcolm!” he said sharply. “You’re high, it’s not real, none of it’s real!”

Malcolm only screamed again, eyes wide open, pupils dilated with fear, seeing but not seeing at all, completely taken over by his hallucinations. 

Gil wrapped his arms around his boy, pinning him down, but giving him something solid and real to cling on to. He shooed a few curious detectives out of his office.

Malcolm elbowed him in the face as he thrashed his arms wildly. Gil simply held on, moving Malcolm’s arms out of the way when they came up to hit him again. All the while he talked him through it- “you’re in my office, it’s me, it’s Gil. Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real. Just a hallucination.”

Malcolm clung onto him like he was a drowning man, begging him to _make it go away, make me go away, make him go away, why doesn’t anyone remember her, what’s happening to me!_

Gil answered the only one of these questions he could. “You’re high out of your mind is what’s happening. You’re high, Malcolm. None of what you’re seeing is real.”

“No, no, it-it is real, he grabbed me, she’s _there, he’s me…_ ”

Gil continued holding onto him, a much easier task now that Malcolm had stopped struggling and was simply leaning against him, exhausted.

“You’re okay, Malcolm, you’re going to be okay,” he said, pulling the kid closer to him and letting him lie down across his legs. “I’m right here. I’m real. My office is real. You’re real. None of the rest of it is real.”

Malcolm glanced up uncertainly. “Gil,” he said. Gil was relieved to see that Malcolm’s pupils were slowly returning to normal-he was coming back to himself.

“Yeah, I’m here, buddy. I’m not going anywhere.”

Malcolm’s breath hitched in his throat. “It’s not real?” he asked softly.

“It’s not real,” Gil confirmed, rubbing firm and comforting circles into his back. “You’re safe.”

“I have to find…find the box…find her…”

“What box?”

“My box…I hid it under my bed when I was a kid. It’s got-stuff. My dad.” He sniffed and buried his face in Gil’s legs. 

Gil nodded understandingly, although Malcolm couldn’t see him. “You can find your box later,” he said. “Just try to sleep.”

“Can’t,” Malcolm whispered. “Don’t have…restraints…I might hurt you.”

“Do you want me to take you home, then?”

Malcolm shook his head. “I want to stay with you,” he muttered, voice muffled by Gil’s legs. 

“I can stay at your house with you, and you can sleep in your own bed. I’m not staying here all night,” Gil offered. 

“You’d…stay with me?”

Would he stay? _Of course I’d stay_ , Gil thought. What wouldn’t he do for this kid?

“Of course I’ll stay.”

Malcolm slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. “I’m still so high,” he said, “but it’s not so fun anymore.”

“That’s how it goes,” Gil said sympathetically. “You’ll feel better in the morning.”

He and Malcolm made their way to his car, Gil doing most of the work with Malcolm listing off to the side, not very interested in walking. 

“Do you think I’m gonna become like him? Like my father?”

Gil stopped in his tracks, pulling Malcolm around to look into his eyes.

“Absolutely not,” he said firmly. “Blood doesn’t mean anything. You’re a good man, Malcolm, or you try to be, and that’s more than he will _ever_ be. You are _not_ your father.”

Malcolm nodded sagely. “I’m dizzy,” he commented. “You’ve got two heads.”

“Huh,” Gil replied, continuing making his way to the car.

He hadn’t made it half the distance before Malcolm stopped abruptly, turned to the side, and vomited. He groaned. “This feels so bad…” he muttered. “This feels _really_ bad.”

Gil wrapped an arm around his shoulders, holding him up. “I know,” he said softly. “I know it does. Drugs will do that to you.”

Malcolm pressed himself into Gil’s side. The woman screamed again. 

“She’s here,” he said. “The woman in the trunk…” 

“She’s not, I promise. You’re hallucinating again. Listen to me, Malcolm. She isn’t here.”

That seemed to finally get through to Malcolm, who whimpered and said, “she’s real. I have to help her.”

“You can help her tomorrow,” Gil said. “Let’s get to the car first.”

Finally, they managed to make it to Gil’s car. The whole way to his house, Malcolm didn’t say a word, just leaned his head against the window and tried to ignore his fading (but still very realistic) hallucinations. 

By the time they arrived at his place, Malcolm was far too out of it to be of any use, and Gil carried him up the stairs, hoping he wouldn’t trip and make this night even worse. Mercifully, he made it to Malcolm’s bed without any further incidents.

He set the kid down and headed to the kitchen to get him a glass of water.

“Hey!” Malcolm shouted. “You didn’t tie me down! Gil!”

Gil sighed. He hated the fact that his kid slept like this, and hated the thought of being the one to do it to him.

“Please!” Malcolm yelled. “Please, you have to!”

He sounded so scared that Gil decided to comply, locking him into the restraints as gently as he could, all the while talking soothingly about nothing at all. By the time he was done, Malcolm had fallen asleep. 

Gil rested a hand gently on Malcolm’s forehead, brushing his hair aside. “Sleep well,” he whispered.

For once, Malcolm did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this!! I think this is probably pretty bad (also there's so much dialogue,,,why) but please feel free to let me know what you think!!!


End file.
